Seoul is considered one of the most densely-populated and over-priced cities in the world, reaching a staggering $ 80,000 per square meter. The extreme conditions of the city have forced local architects to operate, design, and build framing the city's urban issues, traditions, and history. This approach by architects has created the theoretical basis of "The Condition of Seoul Architecture", a publication by multidisciplinary practice TCA Think Tank exhibited in the last Seoul Biennale, which sees the point of view of 18 innovative South Korean architects.
In this interview, Pier Alessio Rizzardi, founder of the practice, interviewed Young Joon Kim of Yo2 Architects, City Architect of Seoul, professor at MIT and Seoul National University, and curator of the Seoul Biennale. The atelier focuses on the creation of new architectural solutions using an urbanistic approach to architecture based on the complexity of contemporary life in Seoul.
In a house as in a city, the important things are located in-between the functions. The scale doesn't change the approach. When you design architecture from an urbanistic approach, you cannot see the building as a single self-standing structure. [...] My starting idea is to rethink, rebuild, and reorganize the design across all scales creating continuity by breaking the boundaries between architecture and urbanism between buildings and city. I call it 'Urbanism for Architecture'. -- Young Joon Kim
